


Who Might Understand

by whiteraven1606



Series: Three [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Conditioning, Culture Shock, Dehumanization, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Force Ghosts, Homesickness, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Multi, Nonverbal Communication, Past Child Abuse, Past Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protectiveness, Recovery, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 13:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6008188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Poe had gone to speak to the rescued, sort of kidnapped, Stormtrooper, he hadn't expected much. Maybe build a little trust and possibly get her to eat. He really hoped the General wasn't going to blame him for the Force ghost, because, if cornered about it, he was blaming that one on the Jedi Prince sitting between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who Might Understand

****

Leia smiled as Kaleine saluted as smartly as any of her adults had ever done. "At ease." She pointed at the couch. "Sit down, please."

Kaleine was still a little girl as she clambered onto Leia's couch.

It made Leia all the more angry at the whole injustice of the First Order. She tamped down her anger with the ease of long practice. She poured tea and took a sip before setting the cup down in front of Kaleine. "How do you feel your mission went?"

Kaleine frowned at the cup and then glanced up at Leia before scooting forward enough to reach it. "The Hutt being wiggled a lot. He stank too, but Poe didn't say anything about it, so I didn't either."

Leia bit her lip to keep from laughing. "That was the right thing to do."

With a serious nod, Kaleine took a sip of her tea and then stared down into the cup. "It is supposed to taste like that?"

"Yes, dear." Leia took the cup and added sweetness. She took another sip and held it back out. "Here. See if that's better."

Kaleine took it and very carefully took a drink. She pulled back and smiled. "Oh. That's..." She licked her lips. "Good?" She checked Leia's reaction from the corner of her eye.

Leia smiled softly and settled back in her seat. "On the holonet, you could look up other words that also mean good if you would like to know."

Kaleine frowned. "Can't read yet." She ducked her head. "I know my letters. Promise!"

Leia bit back a sigh. "You aren't in trouble. You've plenty of time to learn to read."

"Oh." She frowned. "Is it bad I almost said height instead of the other word you said to use?"

"Age?"

She nodded. "Yes, that one."

Leia took a sip of her tea. "Did you say height?"

Kaleine shook her head. "No. I did the last name like you said and the counter being got flustered and we went to talk to the Hutt. He couldn't talk Basic."

"He couldn't speak Basic. He probably can, but instead he uses translators because it gives him an edge when the other party forgets that he can understand them."

"Why was he so afraid of your name?"

Leia smiled. "I choked his father to death with a chain. Not that his father didn't deserve it."

Kaleine frowned. "What's a father?"

She blinked. "Well...Has anyone explained a family to you?"

Kaleine wrinkled her nose. "Poe said I've got family here, but you're meaning something different, aren't you?"

"A little, yes." Leia cocked her head. "You understand that Jedi Prince Luke and I are siblings?"

She nodded. "Poe said that's because you have the same parents. Halves share one parent, except the beings that only have one parent and then it's different. After that, he got red faced and tried to relay a memory lesson to us instead of letting us sleep. Noilo said that the mad pilot said that's a normal thing for children, but it seems like you'd want proper sleep efficiency."

"Hmm. Bedtime stories are a tradition on many planets. Parents is the collective name for mother and father, although there are other combinations, which is what tripped Poe up. He decided to deflect from his embarrassment by telling a bedtime story."

"We've been splitting up listening duty so the rest of the squad gets the information dissemination the next awake shift, but is that okay? I hadn't asked because I didn't want Poe in trouble if bedstories were an infraction of the rules."

Leia tamped down on her amusement to keep her expression neutral. "Bedtime stories. That's fine, but you don't have to stay awake for a bedtime story. Falling asleep is allowed. I've been trying to figure out how to handle teaching your group. We don't really have a school."

"Lieutenant Connix gave Tovin a card that gets him anything from the collective information dissemination pool. He's been using the New Republic courses. He thinks it is much easier than it should be so we've been running two days worth a day. Expect the math ones." She straightened up. "No one has fallen behind. I have the worst scores in reading of all of us. I'm working on it. I promise."

"That's alright." Leia reached across and patted Kaleine's hand where it was clasped tight around her cup. "No one has done anything wrong." She made a mental note to have a discussion with Connix and Tovin. "How are you doing the courses?"

Kaleine shifted enough to pull a small data reader from under her shirt. "We sync once a day and we're to ask someone if we have questions. Which used to not be allowed, but Tovin says that it appears pooling information has merit as a teaching technique. He says as long as we can remember it once we learn it then it doesn't matter that we originally accepted outside help."

"Is that why I've been hearing math problems dallied around in the dining hall?"

Kaleine frowned. "Sorry? Math is...weird. The adults we ask don't seem much better at it than us."

Leia smiled softly as she motioned towards the data reader. "May I see?"

Kaleine flicked her data reader's screen and then held it out to Leia.

She could feel her eyebrows trying to climb into her hair. "Well, there's a reason most adults won't be much help. We usually leave these kinds of math problems to astromech droids and navigational computers." She looked at Kaleine. "Did Tovin pick the math courses?"

"Uhm. We had to ask around because heights don't equal the suggested age ranges on the courses."

Leia looked over the edge of the data reader to find Kaleine's tiny hands fidgeting. "True. Who picked the math courses? I'm not going to be mad about it. I would just like to know."

"I was going to ask Poe, but he was busy, and, through Bean, BB-8 said we should start with the basics, but Tovin said we knew that one, so I said Tovin talk to BB-8. And that's how we ended up with the one we're working on."

Leia handed the data reader back and watched it disappear again. "You've done remarkably well."

Kaleine grinned and rubbed her hands on the top of her knees. "Did Poe report I got to ride on the shoulders of Chewbacca? He's very tall. It was a very good vantage point. I saw the Trooper box from up there."

"I heard that, yes." Leia couldn't take it any longer. She eased Kaleine's cup to the side and sat down on the low table. "I'm about to touch you. It's not a reward or a punishment. It's called a hug. Alright?"

Kaleine blinked. "It is like the alternate carry hold? That has merits for firing weapons when you're my height..."

Leia pulled her in and tucked her little head under Leia's chin. She closed her eyes and squeezed Kaleine as tight as she thought she could get away with.

"Oh." Kaleine's little hands flitted along Leia's back. "This is a bad firing position, Princess General."

Leia nodded into Kaleine's little curls that were going to have the chance to grow long if Leia had any say in the matter. "Yes, yes, it is."

Kaleine's little hands fitted themselves along Leia's shoulder blades and Kaleine seemed to relax into the hug.

"Thank you, dearheart." She let Kaleine slip back down onto the couch cushions. "You have done an outstanding job."

There was a knock on Leia's door and Kaleine was up and between her and the door so fast that Leia had trouble tracking it.

Leia huffed to herself at the interruption. "Yes?"

"Commander Dameron is trying to talk to the rescued female Stormtrooper, General."

Leia mentally rolled her eyes at that stupid flyboy. He never could just slow down for two seconds. She turned to Kaleine. "Please find Tovin and tell him to report to Lieutenant Connix for me."

Kaleine popped off a salute and slipped out the door past the adult that was waiting on Leia.

Leia sighed. "Message Lieutenant Connix and warn her that Tovin is going to be reporting to her. I want her to get a report out of him on what he's been teaching. She is not to insinuate he's done anything wrong while she gets me a list of courses and amounts of work, the whole kriffing mess, understood?"

The trooper nodded. "Yes, ma'am." He moved out of Leia's way and she picked up four children for an escort from the corridor walls.

Leia reminded herself that she wasn't going to convince them not to guard her. She'd tried and lost. She really wished Han was alive. He'd have gathered them all up and tucked them under his jacket. He'd have never let them out of his sight again. Well, at least until he'd started feeling smothered. Leia let the wave of grief roll through herself and away. She touched the arm of one of the adults escorting her. "Remind me that I need to make a call to Maz."

"Time, ma'am?"

"Tomorrow morning at the latest." Leia listened as her bodyguard that doubled as one of her aides, scribbled it down as they turned the corner leading to Medical.

****

Poe grimaced as Dr. Kalonia grabbed his elbow and dug her fingers into the nerve line. "Owww. What?"

"One thing, Commander. I put _one_ thing on the shopping list and you can bring back enough liquor to give Pava poison toxicity for the remainder of the year, but you can't get me a single genetic scanner?"

Poe frowned and pulled on his numbing arm. "We got everything on the list except toys for the kids. Not that they'd know what to do with..." He broke off as she stuck a data reader under his nose.

"It was _on_ the list."

He took the reader and scrolled until he found it. "Uh." He pulled out his note taker. "I pulled off base's mainframe half an hour before we lifted off. You had it on before that?"

She nodded as she scrolled through his list and then scrolled again. She huffed and held his note taker back out to him. "We have a problem."

Poe tucked his reader away. "What happen to our scanner? We have one, right?"

"It fried its main board two days after you came back from Jakku, so, yes, we did, but we don't now." She rubbed at the corner of one of her eyes. "The droids are all insisting they aren't authorized to perform the analysis, which is technically correct. I am not about to send samples off-base without knowing..." She sighed and rubbed at her own forehead.

Poe soothed his hand over the curve of her slumped shoulder. "What's your concern that's got you needing an analysis?"

"The children are..." Dr. Kalonia made a frustrated noise and blinked hard. "What are the chances that the Stormtroopers are related to each other?"

"Oh." Poe licked his lips. "Okay. Next time someone goes on a shopping run we'll make sure to tell them verbally we need to get a new scanner." He gestured to the room at the end of the corridor. "How's she doing?"

Dr. Kalonia leaned against the wall behind her. "She's a medical disaster and tends to be as nosy as the children should be, but aren't."

Poe nodded. "The kids chatter some when they don't know an adult can hear them." He frowned. "Have you been able to get baseline scans on them?"

"Luckily for me, your droid has brought in basic scans on each of them."

He needed to have a conversation with BB-8. "That's good."

"I suppose you want to see her?"

"If you think I'm not going to make her scream, yeah."

Dr. Kalonia pushed off the wall and headed them down the hallway to the open door at the end. "Just don't try to touch the box. She seems to recognize us as different from the First Order. She's been non-violent towards staff, but there's no social norms to speak of."

"Wouldn't expect it." Poe peeked into the room and it took him a moment to find her huddled next to her box with a cot overturned between them. "She eaten?"

Dr. Kalonia held out a protein pouch. "Won't take it from me or a medical droid. I was going to try one of our defectors next."

He nodded, took the pouch, and eased through the door.

Boost watched him over the edge of the upturned cot. 

As Poe got around the end of the cot he could see she was moving her hands in and out of shapes and patterns. He eased to the floor and tried not to flinch at the cold of the tile. "Hi."

She blinked at him and shifted so she was positioned between her box and him, dislodging water pouches that had probably been on the cot until it was overturned.

"That's okay. I'm not going to touch it." He waggled the pouch. "This is for you." Poe popped the opening and took a careful sip. He opened his mouth for her to see the food on his tongue before he swallowed. "Good."

She watched intently through him taking a second mouthful and repeating showing her the food in his mouth before eating it. 

Poe recapped the pouch. Her hands slowed as Poe held the pouch out towards her. She didn't reach for the pouch, but she cocked her head as Poe waited.

"It's okay. You can take it and wait to eat until you're sure." He sat the pouch on the floor in front of them and nudged it towards her so it scooted out of his reach. "Yours."

She snorted and her hands sped back up. "No, no, no." She scooted back against her box until she was pressing it into the wall behind her. "No, no, no."

Poe eased backwards until he was on a entirely new patch of cold title. "Not making you do anything, Boost."

She took great heaving breaths as her hands weaved gestures between them.

Poe caught the shape of a hand signal he'd seen Jaydavi use. Poe bit the inside of his cheek and made the 'Join Wing' sign.

She froze for a moment before flowing right back to making gestures as her breathing slowed down. The fourth one was 'Join Wing' and Poe grinned.

He gave her his callsign in hand gestures.

Boost blinked at him, hummed under her breath, and in the mess of gestures she signed back the only one Poe could read said 'Unknown Entity' before a rude gesture Poe hoped the kids didn't pick up.

"You speak Stormtrooper and I speak New Republic signs. Alright, we can deal with this." Poe pulled out his comm unit and nearly yelled as she darted forward to snatch it from him. It was his local only, so she couldn't get a signal out of system, but that didn't mean he wanted his ID-tag on whatever she tried to send.

She curled back against her box and Poe realized on the retreat she'd grabbed the protein pouch as well. She turned his comm over and over. "Little, small, tiny, small, quiet, quiet."

Poe scooted a little closer and her head snapped up. "You're okay. It's alright. Scroll until you find an entry titled Finn."

She blinked several times as her hands kept turning his comm over and over. "FN-2187."

Poe sucked in a sharp breath. "He was. Now he's Finn."

She grinned. "Finn, Finn, Finnscean, right, right, man, right." She turned the comm face down and Poe craned his head to watch her expertly scroll and call Finn with the screen pointed at the floor.

"Poe?"

"Hey, Finn. Could you come to Medical? I have a language barrier with Boost."

She muttered to herself as she pulled the comm's back panel off the unit. "Right, right, man, right."

"I'll be right there."

Poe didn't get the chance to thank him as Boost pulled a circuit from the unit. "Careful. I need that later, Boost."

She glanced up and blinked. "Right?"

"Sure." Poe caught his comm as she threw him the casing and back panel. She hunched over the circuit she'd pulled and she...petted it? "Uhm, Boost?"

She muttered something he didn't understand and then she was pulling a tool from between her breasts.

Poe blinked as she made something on the circuit spark. "Please don't destroy it."

She glanced at him and muttered something else he didn't know before tucking the tool away and holding her now empty hand out at him. She made grabby hand motions at him. 

Poe tried to give her the comm unit, but she kept moving her hand when he got what she considered too close. He gently dropped the comm unit into her outstretched hand after trying unsuccessfully to just place it there the second time.

She inserted the circuit into the unit and made grabby hands at him again.

Poe dropped the cover into her hand and watched as she slotted it back into place with a click.

Boost grinned at the comm unit and then tossed it towards him. "Boost."

He caught the unit and smiled as Finn appeared in the doorway. "Yeah."

She looked at Finn over the cot's overturned edge and Poe could see her tense up.

"Hey, Finn." Poe gestured for Finn to come behind him. "Boost speaks Stormtrooper hand signals, but I speak New Republic ones."

Finn pulled the room's lone chair over and sat in it behind Poe. "She does?"

"Think so." Poe leaned so his back was against Finn's shin. "Try signing my call sign to her, please."

"Alright." Finn sounded unconvinced, but he made gestures above Poe's head.

Poe could feel the air move against his hair as he watched Boost watching them.

"Roll?"

Finn's leg went tense against Poe's back. "Repeating Roll."

Boost blinked and she hummed brokenly as she gestured with quick deliberate movements.

Finn huffed. "That's what I just told her."

Poe frowned. "Oh. I think...She's asking you if you want it on the Roll." He made the sign for 'Negative' while Boost stared at him. "That means 'no,' alright?"

She frowned.

Poe poked Finn's leg that he wasn't leaning against. "Tell her someone for the Roll."

Finn made a gesture above his head and Poe watched Boost continue to frown at them.

She made rapid, flitting gestures back.

"No, it isn't."

Poe titled his head back to look up at Finn. "What'd she say?"

He scowled. "She said the Repeating Roll is mine."

Poe looked at Boost and nodded. "You're right. Repeating Roll is Finn's, but only if you help him."

Boost cocked her head as she muttered quietly.

Finn leaned down and hissed in Poe's ear. "It isn't mine, Poe. Don't tell her that. Don't lie."

Poe touched the side of Finn's face as he watched Boost watching them. "Finn. I'm not lying. She's the key to changing the Repeating Roll, but she taught you how to do it. You said, right?"

"Yeah."

Boost grinned. "Right, right, man, right."

Poe nodded. "Right." He used his fingertips to rub little circles in the side of Finn's scalp. "She gave you the keys."

Boost shook her head. "No."

Poe froze while Finn jerked slightly at Boost's firm tone.

Boost shifted up onto her box so that she was sitting on it. She fished the protein pouch from where she'd put it in the pile of water pouches. "Man said wait, sorry. Man said wait long wait. Other man said..." She shook herself and tore open the pouch and started sucking on it as she made motions with her hands for several moments before pulling the pouch from her mouth to gesture with it while she continued to speak. "Man said save the baby save the other baby save the next baby. Save, save, save, keep save."

Poe held his breath as she swallowed while slowly blinking.

"Save, wait, keep save, win." She grinned toothily at them with food showing on her teeth. "Win." She gestured with quick flicks of her fingers.

Finn huffed and made a series of gestures over Poe's head.

Boost shook her head. "Not yet." She took another mouthful of food before putting down the pouch and making more hand gestures.

"I don't know all the signs she's using. I asked if she'd won. Then she said waiting on the something woman that's the key, something, something." Finn leaned back in his seat. "I have no idea what she means."

Poe didn't have a clue either. He made the gesture for his call sign again and grinned when she repeated it. "That's my name."

She frowned and looked at Finn.

Finn made signs over Poe's head.

Boost slid down off her box and gathered herself into a ball between them and the box. "Black Leader same Poe Dameron?" She made several gestures, but the only one Poe knew meant X-Wing near the middle of the series.

Poe nodded. "That's me."

She grinned wide and turned towards her box. "The Keeper of the Tree." She started popping latches on the box. "Have Princess General?"

"Um, yes. I can get her to come here if you'd like." Poe had a moment of fear spike through him as she ran her fingers along the rim of the box and pressed in a pattern. "Tree?"

She hummed happily to herself as she threw back the lid of the box. "Glowy, glowy, stupid boy." She started pulling parts from the box. She half-turned towards them. "Tree Keeper knows all names."

Poe frowned as Finn shifted behind him. "I don't understand, Boost."

She pulled another part from the box. "Names, names, names trigger win, wait."

Poe turned his head as the sounds of someone coming down the hallway reached him.

Boost squeaked and scrambled to get all the parts back into the box and the box closed. She was huddled around it, sucking on the protein pouch by the time the General appeared in the doorway.

"Am I interrupting?"

Poe shrugged. "Maybe a little." He nodded towards Boost. "Boost was just calling me the Keeper of the Tree, but I don't know what she's talking about."

Boost shifted and peeked at the General over the edge of the cot on its side. "Names." She made the sign for Poe's call sign and then a sign he didn't know.

Finn huffed. "That doesn't make sense, Boost."

The General accepted a chair from the hallway. She sat down near Finn and Poe. "What did she say, Finn?"

"She said Black Leader non-entity. It doesn't make sense."

Poe considered Boost as she sucked on her protein pouch while watching them watch her. He looked at the General and then back at Boost. "Finn, ask her where she heard the General's title, please."

Finn signed it out as Poe watched every little movement she made as she watched. "Poe, I don't have a sign for 'Princess.' There's one for Queen, I can use that."

"Sounds good."

The General sighed.

Poe flashed her a grin and went back to watching Boost. There it was again. She had glanced at the corner. It was so fast he didn't think it'd be noticeable unless the only thing a person was doing was staring at her. Poe shifted his position so he could see the corner she was glancing at. Normal enough looking. That was...Poe sucked in a breath as it all fell into place. He knew why Finn didn't know all the signs she was using. "Finn, stop. General, do you remember any Imperial Stormtrooper hand signs?"

"Some." She cocked an eyebrow at him. "What is it Poe?"

"Can you ask her if Stupid Glowy is standing in the corner?" He gestured towards the corner and Boost flinched.

The General hummed. "I'm pretty sure there was never a sign for 'glowy,' Poe." She made several signs slowly.

Boost blinked hard and knelt up on her knees as she watched the General. "Man." She grinned and signed fast and sure.

Finn's leg against Poe's back tensed up. "That's...not quite right."

The General frowned. "Someone get me Luke." There were fading footsteps from the hallway. She frowned harder. "Slow down, dear."

Boost started talking as she signed, "Man said wait. No pain, pain, hurt. Wait, wait."

The General shook her head. "I can't keep up with her signs. It's been too long." She turned her head. "Luke, slowly come in, please."

Poe kept an eye on Boost as Luke eased into the room.

She kept signing until he became visible. "No, no, no." She scrambled down between the box and the overturned cot. She kept herself between them all and the box.

Poe frowned. "We're going backwards." He scooted a little closer. "You said I was the Keeper of the Tree."

Luke made a small noise. "She said what?"

"She said I was the Keeper of the Tree." Poe signed his call sign again.

Boost blinked and signed it back with that sign Finn had said meant non-entity.

"See and that doesn't make sense, Boost."

She huffed. She turned and knelt up enough for the General and Luke to see her signs. Rapid fire signs as she frowned at them. "No, no, no."

Luke eased forward until he could set down beside Poe on the floor. "She's using a mix of signs. Some of it's Imperial, but a lot of it I don't know."

Poe watched her get more frustrated the more she signed at them. "Boost."

She froze and looked at him.

He signed slowly as he spoke. "You were Imperial Signal Corps, weren't you?"

Boost grinned wide and jabbered so fast he couldn't catch that, but her signing slowed down.

Poe lightly thumped his head against Finn's leg. "She is on split channels."

Luke looked at him with a frown. "What?"

"She's signing _and_ talking and when you take the two channels together you get the whole code. She encrypted herself."

Boost hummed brokenly and draped herself across her box.

Poe started. He knew that sequence. That was _Binary_. She'd just said 'locked'. He whistled BB-8's happy trill.

She sat up so fast that Poe thought she might overbalance. She chirped.

"Oh." Luke made a series of clicks at her, sounding more like R2-D2 than Poe had managed to sound like BB-8.

She hummed again and signed.

Finn leaned forward and signed just over Poe's head.

Boost turned towards the General with a painfully hopeful expression.

The General raised her eyebrows. "Well, don't expect me to beep at you."

"Princess General?"

The General sighed and made a gesture.

Poe recognized the Imperial Stormtrooper hand sign for affirmative.

Boost trilled just like BB-8 and then it morphed into an approximation of R2-D2 as she started to reopen her box. She pulled out parts and dug out more as she kept happily oscillating between trills and beeping.

Poe gripped his own knees tightly as she started slotting things together.

It didn't take her long at all and they were staring at a completed box with lights. Boost pushed the cot back over into it's proper position. She sat down on the end of it and quieted. She gazed at Poe.

He really wished he could hug her without it causing her distress. "Thank you, Boost."

She shook her head. "Namer of Stormtroopers. Keeper of the Tree." She dropped off the cot to kneel in front of him and Luke. "Names." She fluttered her hands along the space between them. "Names?"

"Poe, she wants a name." The General's voice was soft and easy, but Poe could hear the underlying strain in it.

Poe sucked in a breath. "Sure. A name." He nodded towards her. "For you."

Boost wiggled on her knees and watched him.

He wanted to cry. She needed a good name. He licked his lips as he rapidly thought of and discarded name after name. He had no idea what to name her. He'd been mostly okaying what the Stormtroopers came up with themselves, except for Finn and Cerri, but that had just been spur of the moment...

Luke touched his shoulder. "Breathe. She'll wait for you. Just breathe, Poe."

Poe blinked back tears and watched Boost patiently watching him, waiting for a name. He swallowed and on the cot behind Boost a shadow formed up until there was a thinly-glowing man Poe didn't recognize sitting there. He squinted at the hand signals the man was making. He said the resulting name mentally to himself and grinned. "Satine."

Boost ohhh'd and patted her hands along the floor. "Name?"

Poe watched the Force ghost form up more, becoming brighter and less see through. Luke stiffened next to him as Finn made a tiny noise behind Poe. The General huffed and pointedly turned her head.

The Force ghost sighed, but there was no noise to it.

Poe grinned at Boost. "Yes, Boost's name is Satine." He tilted his head and looked at the Force ghost. "Who'd I name her after?"

He opened his mouth, but then closed it and made several hand signs.

Luke snorted. "Seriously? Old Ben's long lost love? Why did all my Masters insist emotional bonds should be forbidden if they didn't follow their own rules?"

The Force ghost heaved a silent sigh.

Luke tilted his head. "Why are you not speaking?"

The General got up and walked out.

The Force ghost looked wistfully after her and that's when Poe figured it out. He pressed back against Finn's leg.

"You look way too young to be _him_."

Luke shook his head. "He's gotten younger looking over the years. He started out looking like he did when he died. Commander Poe Dameron and Finn, meet my father, Anakin Skywalker."

Satine turned and wacked Anakin on the shoulder before signing fast at him.

Anakin patted her shoulder and smiled at her.

Poe frowned. "Wait. How did she manage to touch you? I thought you were essentially a ghost?" He looked to Luke, who was frowning.

Anakin gently pushed on Satine until she went out of the room. He made shooing motions out the door for several minutes before turning towards them. "She dampens the Force. Like a heat sink, but for the Force."

Frowning, Luke moved from the floor to the end of the cot. "How is that possible?"

Anakin shrugged. "She just always been that way. Hiding her in the Signal Corps kept her from the Emperor's attention. She's not actively using the ability right now, so the range is just past her own skin, but when she's fighting she can cover a planet. Don't underestimate her because of the insanity, Luke."

"Father..."

He held up his hand. "It all too complicated to explain before she needs back here with the Code Six. Let her hook it up to the comms. She'll be able to get into First Order communications without giving away the base."

Luke scowled and shook his head. "What are you even trying to do?"

Anakin smiled sadly. "Make up for everything I did wrong? Find your first Master's lost granddaughter. She's your key." He faded out as Satine came barreling back into the room and hunkered down next to the Code Six.

Poe soothed a hand over Luke's back as he took shuddery breaths. "Satine?" He watched her petting the Code Six. "Boost?"

She turned her head and blinked. "Oh. Name."

"Yes, name. You want to hook that into a closed communications board to test it?"

She clapped her hands. "Work!"

****

Leia took herself out to their new gardens. She found the most screened corner in the vertical rows and sat down. She rubbed her trembling hands together. She felt him hovering nearby. "Go away."

The feeling faded and Leia closed her eyes to let her tears well up. After long enough to sooth most of her anger, Leia took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She started. "Who the hell are _you_?"

The glowing little boy smiled and waved before turning and walking through the nearest wall.

Leia blew out another breath and waited for her brother to come to her.

A ripple in her Force connection announced someone else had found her first.

"Ma'am?"

Leia smiled and turned her head towards Rey. "What have I said, Rey?"

She eased around the corner. "That I can call you Leia. It just seems...odd?"

"Hmm." Leia patted the empty part of the bench next to her. "Sit."

Rey settled carefully. "What's wrong?"

"You remember when we spoke of Force ghosts?"

"Yes." Rey eyed the wall the boy had disappeared through.

"Luke's father is one. I refuse to speak to him. He just appeared in Boost's room."

Rey nodded. "Finn got a call from Poe to go over there." She stood and ran a hand over the wall. "You refuse to call him your father?"

Leia sighed. "Only sometimes. I can't...He held me captive and blew up Alderaan while I watched. I...guess I'm not as forgiving as Luke just because he found his way back from the dark side."

Rey sat back down. "Chewie explained to me who Kylo Ren was. Before he..." She pursed her lips. "Is that why Master Luke is terrified of training anyone?"

"Partly." Leia leaned her head back against the wall behind the bench. "Luke didn't have a chance to be what he considers properly trained. Being self-taught for a lot of it means he's uncertain in his ability to teach others." She looked at Rey. "You can meditate no matter what else happens. Luke insists it helps with control."

Rey regarded her somely. "Does it help you?"

"Not particularly." Leia wiped at her eyes. "It didn't seem to help Ben either. I worried so much. I wonder now if maybe I didn't just help push him right into Snoke's grasp."

"He's scared."

Leia sniffed and looked at Rey. "What?"

She bit her lip. "He tried to..." She waved her hand at her head. "Like what he did to Poe, but something about it let me..." She frowned. "Not strike back, but...reflect it? I could see him." Rey made a wide gesture with her hands. "All of him, and he was scared. Scared of Snoke knowing...something. I couldn't quite catch it before he broke the connection."

Leia laid a gentle hand on Rey's arm. "You need to tell this to Luke, Rey."

She scoffed. "He doesn't want to talk to me."

That made Leia smile. "He's just a little afraid of you. He told me you wanted to beat him for having gone to Ahch-To."

Rey ducked her head. "He's just so...stubborn." She made a whacking motion. "I just want to hit him. I mean, I thought I was stubborn, but he's so much worse."

Leia snorted and wrapped an arm around Rey's shoulders. "Let him near you or he'll never train you, Rey."

She sighed. "I...think I'll try meditating first. Maybe he'll get up the nerve to come to me?"

"Possibly." She pushed on Rey's shoulder just a little. "You should probably go check on Poe and Finn. Poe gave Boost a name and it bothered him."

Rey turned her head in the direction of the rest of the base. "That's probably why he's hurting and Finn's worried." She sprung up and whirled towards Leia. "Thank you." She leaned down and wrapped Leia in a hug. "Just try. Sometimes it's the best you can manage."

Leia returned the hug and smiled as Rey hurried away. She waited for Rey's rippling in the Force to fade. "Fine, but don't expect me to be polite."

He faded in several feet in front of her and settled cross legged on the floor.

Leia forced herself to watch him gazing down at his glowing hands. She frowned. "Don't talk." She narrowed her eyes at him as he looked up at her. "You were a terrible man to me. To Luke. That you saved him from the Emperor is the _only_ reason I'm...trying."

He nodded and folded his hands in his lap as he watched her.

"Finn has told me he's seen you following Ben around." She waited for him to nod. "Is he...is he as evil as you were?"

He shook his head.

Leia took a deep breath. "Good. Go haunt my boy and leave me the kriff alone."

He bowed his head and faded away.

"Father." She allowed herself another minute to just breathe before getting up and fetching her children and adult guards from the corridor leading to the gardens. She had work to do.

****

Zeroes hadn't felt this out of place since just after Transitioning from Phase One to Phase Two when he'd stood in formation with so many spaces where others should have been standing if they hadn't been too slow to survive.

He stared at the information display as it scrolled slowly. He looked up and down the corridor, but no one seemed to care that he was near the board. No one seemed to care about him at all. They walked around him. Some muttered 'excuse me' as they passed between him and the board as though they were the ones inconveniencing him.

Zeroes frowned harder as another Resistance member did the mutter thing before going on down the hallway and into the dining hall. They had food out all the time. He'd watched through the door opening and closing since he found the information board. They just changed out food once in awhile, but it was still there.

"You okay?"

Zeroes scolded himself for letting someone come up on him without noticing. He turned and found one of the Resistance pilots from the Enemy List standing a few feet away. He frowned at her.

She tilted her head. "Just asking, because you've been here a while." She jerked a thumb at the little rolling ball droid from the Corellian ship, the one they'd been tasked to capture on Jakku. "BB-8 is worried about your blood sugar levels."

Zeroes frowned at the droid as it rolled further behind the woman's legs while titling it's dome to keep him in its optical line. "I'm functional."

"Uh huh." She came forward and grabbed his elbow.

Zeroes braced himself for a throw, but she just started dragging him along with her towards the dining hall. "What _are_ you doing?"

"Showing you that you can get food. We had to do with this with Jaydavi's squadron the first couple of days. If you decide to hoard pick that up from the rations near the door. They're just standard field rations, but trying to explain that things spoil was quite the thing with the kids."

Zeroes let her drag him through the doors towards the food trays. "Spoil?"

She rolled her eyes as she shoved an empty tray into his hands. "Yeah. Look it up on the holonet. There's some really gross examples."

He watched her from under his lashes as she started plopping food on his tray. He had no idea what she was talking about with the holonet. He started as the droid beeped before rolling close enough to nearly bump his legs. "What?"

"I'm Jessika, but you can call me Jess. Did Poe get around to giving you a name yet? I know he was pulled pretty quick once you all landed. The General was worried. We weren't expecting him back quite so fast."

Zeroes watched her put more things on his tray. They were...colors. What was that? He glanced at her as she tugged on his arm to move him down the line. "Worried?" He'd never heard of an officer as high as a General caring about a single Trooper. Captain Phasma knew all their designations and even the secondaries, but he thought that was just because she was far more efficient than other officers.

"Yeah." Jess put another scoop of food on his tray. "You know what worried means?"

Zeroes glared. "Yes."

She shrugged. "Sorry. Just checking. Did you know that the kids came to us without knowing what tickling was? They thought Poe was attacking Kaleine. That was an afternoon, let me tell you." She eyed his tray. "You want more?"

Zeroes wasn't certain how to calculate the nutritional value of the red pile, but he _knew_ he was looking at more food than he should get in two days. "No?"

She grabbed his elbow and started pulling again. "We can come back and get more if you're still hungry."

Zeroes shoved down the desire to ask what tickling was as he let her drag him to a corner. He blinked when she took the more vulnerable position with her back to the dining hall. He stood beside the table and shifted his weight from foot to foot without giving it away with upper body movement. "What's your rank?"

She looked up at him with an expression he didn't have a name for and then pointed her fork at the empty seat. "I'm on your Enemy List. You know my rank, now sit down."

Zeroes sat down the tray, but stayed standing as the droid dithered a few feet away. "You're an officer. You should have the more protected position to sit in."

She chewed as she made another expression he hadn't seen before. "You all are really worrisome, you know? Quit worrying about me and sit down. Eat. Consider it an order if that helps."

Zeroes considered bodily moving her, but she had a hand on her tray and part of the food was sloppy. He sat.

"See?" She smiled at him with all her teeth showing. "Now, please, eat."

He picked up a forkful of food and sniffed it. It...smelled. He stared at it.

She looked from his fork to him and back again. "So, we're doing this. Awesome." She pointed at his fork with her own. "As a Stormtrooper you were given just what your body needed to survive. That didn't make it good tasting or good to look at."

Zeroes frowned at his tray.

"Not that all of it is going to look good anyway." She put her fork down. "None of it is poisoned. None of it is designed to harm you. If you happen to feel sick say so. If your airway starts to swell, really say so. We haven't hit anyone with an allergy yet, but Poe worries."

"He said." Zeroes screwed up his courage. If the Resistance ate it he could as well. He narrowed his eyes as he chewed. "Is it supposed to taste like this?"

She made another expression he didn't know. "Score! Snap owes me five more credits. Every last one of you guys has said that on the first bite."

He glared at her as he took another bite. "Betting is forbidden."

"Heh. Was forbidden. Here you can't bet your X-Wing or flight suit, but you can just about everything else. You do a better neutral face than Finn. Remember to use it when playing sabacc."

"Neutral face?"

She waved her hand at her own face. "Expressions?" She rolled her eyes. "Right. Forgot. You're used to a helmet, huh?"

Zeroes frowned. "Forgot, really?"

Jess shrugged. "It isn't that hard. You look lost and young when you aren't glaring at me."

He studied his food. "I don't feel young."

"Didn't think you did." She poked at the edge of his tray with the back end of her fork. "Hey."

"What?"

"It'll be alright."

Zeroes dropped his fork. "No, it won't." He leaned back in his chair and checked the positions of everyone else in the room. "You...you don't understand."

She pushed her mostly empty tray to the side and folded her arms on top of the table. "What don't I understand?"

"Everything." Zeroes frowned. "No, not..." He used his fork to pick at the edge of one of the weird colored piles of food. "I'm a Stormtrooper."

"I know that."

He shook his head. "I don't know anything else." Zeroes thumbed the scar on his cheek. He just wanted his armor. His barrack, his schedules, his...life.

She nodded, but didn't say anything.

"You just..." He huffed. "Your information is displayed. What is that even?"

Jess cocked her head. "Okay, that you are going to have to help me understand."

Zeroes dug his thumb into his scar until he could feel the pressure. "Everyone can see it."

She made another expression, he'd seen that one before, but he still didn't know what it meant. "That's the point?"

He shook his head. "Prisoners could see it. _I_ stood there and watched it, but no one even cared."

"You aren't a prisoner."

He huffed. "No, I know that. I mean..."

She shook her head. "Sorry, right. You mean we just have it out there."

He nodded, feeling a little lighter as she finally grasped the insanity of it.

"How would it work for your information board?"

Zeroes frowned. "We don't have a board. You listen to the weekly announcements and you remember it."

Her eyebrows went up, that was a new expression too. "A week at a time? For your whole squad?"

"For the whole Battalion, of course."

"Wow. Okay." She pushed his tray at little towards him. "Eat some more."

Zeroes tried the sloppy food and frowned when she plucked his fork out of his hand and replaced it with a scoop.

"This is a spoon. You all have weird gaps in your knowledge. I'm just saying." 

"You were waiting for that."

She nodded. "You are getting the much more streamlined version of this. The kids just go with what we hand them, so we didn't realize none of you had never seen soup until Jaydavi. He was hilarious."

"You had Finn first."

"Yeah, but he spent several weeks in a coma." She blinked. "Right, right. Coma. That's a medical thing..."

"I've seen it once." Zeroes frowned. "Weeks?"

"Uh huh." She put her chin in her hand. "Once?"

He nodded. "They didn't recycle that Trooper."

"Ele said that's the best you can hope for you when you die."

Zeroes switched back to the fork and dug into the red pile. "Maybe."

Jess pulled a device out of her vest and set it down next to her tray. "Maybe?"

"We..." He frowned. He shouldn't be giving the Resistance any information, but...he took another mouthful to give him a moment to think. She hadn't spoken with a mouthful in her mouth, so she probably wouldn't expect him to. Zeroes took two more bites while he considered.

She shifted her chin in her hand. "You don't have to tell me whatever it is." She pushed the device towards him. "This is a data reader for you. Gets the holonet through the main sensor array. Can't call out of system directly from it."

"I don't know how to call a person anyway." He didn't have to tell her, but he wanted to. Zeroes blinked. It was _his_ choice now. "We're bred. You know that?"

She bit her lip. "Yeah, I've heard that."

"Where do you think the babies come from?" He tucked the device away into an inner pocket of the non-regulation jacket he still had on.

Her eyebrows went up again. "They..." She sat up and frowned as she cocked her head. "Recycle you into...new babies?"

Zeroes shrugged. "Figures, doesn't it? Breeding isn't a job anyone ever has had before. I've kept thinking I'd hear of it, but I never have. Reconditioning takes samples. The dead they recycle have holes in the same places every time."

She sat back. "Okay. I really hate the First Order. Between the rathtars and this...yeah. I totally hate them on your behalf."

Zeroes frowned. "Wait. You didn't have..." He trailed off as her eyebrows rose again.

"Oh." Jess shook her head. "No. No rathtars. I didn't even become a soldier until I was grown. The idea of children training to be soldiers is just..." She shook herself like the one time Slip had shaken for a hour after a bad simulation. "It bothers me every time one of the children asks when blaster practice is going to be."

"Grown? How do you learn..." He made a gesture. "Anything?"

She grinned. "Practice." She stood up and grabbed his forearm. "Come on. Let's go get you a name."

Zeroes let her pull him along. He tried not to let the food they left on the trays bother him when they put the trays on a belt to be cleaned. They stopped at the door until he'd tucked two rations bars into his pockets. She shoved another two into one of his non-regulation jacket pockets as they started down the hallway.

He had no idea how to tell her he didn't know what to do with a name, so he just followed her as the little beeping droid followed them.

****

Poe stopped inside his doorway. He stepped back out and checked the nameplate. He stepped back forward and poked the closest blanket log with his toe.

"Hmm?"

"What happened to the other beds?"

The blanket log sat up and became Noilo, yawning at him. "We reconfigured. Zeroes' bunk is that one now. You're through there." Noilo pointed at a new door on the far wall next to the only bunk that had been Poe's yesterday. "We figured out why you might want a cleared room."

Poe ran his fingers through his hair. "Oh, and how did you figure out that?"

Noilo shrugged. "The security on the holonet is bad. It just asks for your age. We don't know our ages so we just inputted different ones until it spat out the information."

Poe hung his head. "Please don't watch adult only marked content."

"We thought it was pretty noisy."

Poe ran a hand over his face. "Ugh."

"You're taking it better than the droid did."

"Which droid?" Poe eyed Noilo, because he hadn't had BB-8 come barreling into him wanting him to know anything this...awkward.

"The domed one that uses clipped beeping. He turned the whole holonet off for us. Tovin had to locally sync today's lessons to get them recorded."

Poe opened his mouth to ask, but then he just shook his head as he shut his mouth. He patted Noilo on the head. "No noisy adult holos until you're taller."

Noilo huffed and laid back down. "The mad pilot said to put Zeroes in here. Is that okay? She said she'd explain it to you after you'd slept."

"Yeah. Jess would have a good reason. She didn't say anything a little bit ago when she caught me in the hallway and made me name the poor guy."

"Poor?"

Poe knelt down and helped Noilo untangle his blanket and get it back in place. "I don't think we've done him any favors. There's this concept called homesickness and I think he's got that. I have the feeling he's not going to stay."

Noilo yawned and blinked hard. "He wants to be here, he just doesn't know what he's supposed to do now."

Poe stroked his fingers gently over Noilo's hair. "Yeah?"

Noilo nodded and snuggled down into his blanket. "Remember to show him pillows. He'll like pillows."

Poe waited for Noilo's breathing to even out before he eased back to his feet and made his way to the newly fitted door. He opened it and found a huge bed. Where'd they get the sheets for _that_ thing? He slipped inside and let the door close behind him as Rey eased up onto one elbow on the bed.

"Hey."

Poe smiled at her tired face. "Hi."

She grinned and pointed at the shelf against the far wall. "Look. The vendor said it'll stand over or under watering and to just water once a week. He drew me a line to water to and everything."

Poe eased his way onto the bed, knee walking to reach the far wall. He ran gentle fingers over the plant's leaves. "It's lovely."

She draped herself against his side and Poe stilled to let her dictate their amount of touching. "You alright?"

Poe shook his head. "I just spent the afternoon watching the strongest being I've ever met try to talk to our Signal officers through a sort of encryption on herself that meant we needed me, Finn, and Luke just to get anywhere."

"I listened from the hallway part of the time."

He nodded and turned himself so he could wrap an arm around her. "You?"

She hummed. "I'm alright. I only had to remind myself twice that I could eat without turning in work." She grinned at him in a quick flash. "Want to help with my hair?"

Poe blinked. "Sure?"

She slipped out from under his arm and rummaged on the far side of the bed. "The kids put us back here. This was storage, but the corridor it faced to is blocked off." She waved a hand at the sealed door the bed was butted up against.

"Rockfall. Engineering thinks it's stable now."

She hummed and came up with a comb. She held it out towards him. "Look! It's just for hair."

He nodded as he shucked his boots and crawled across the bed to her. He took the comb. "Yes, it's a comb. What have you been using all this time?"

She waggled her fingers. "These work, but the vendor that showed me this said it allowed a lover to work your hair for you. She seemed to be repulsed by the idea of another's fingers in my hair."

Poe settled against the wall and let her crawl between his spread legs. "Depends on the situation."

Rey reached up and released her hair buns one at a time. "Most things do. I worry about Finn."

"Oh?" Poe let her fan her hair how she wanted before he started with a small section and slowly worked his way up from the tips. "Worry how?"

"He doesn't..." She frowned and turned her head just enough to eye him from the corner of one eye. "I checked the medical sections of the holonet that concern humans."

"Okay?"

"Just a warning." She turned that little bit back forward and sighed as he started another section. "Males the age he roughly looks like get partial erections some mornings, right?"

"They can." Poe concentrated on the hair he was combing. "He doesn't?"

"You hadn't noticed?"

"He's usually up and out by the time I wake." Poe frowned. "It might just be because of his back injury using up his body's reserves."

"No." Rey sighed. "I asked him. Neither of us know customs, so it wasn't awkward like when I tried to ask Snap..."

Poe bit back a laugh. "You tried...Nevermind, tell me that part later. What'd Finn say?"

"He said..." She swallowed and turned to snuggle her face into his chest. "He didn't want to remind himself of Reconditioning."

Poe wrapped his arms around her. "So you asked what he meant, didn't you?"

She nodded against his chest. "He was hurting deep inside and I thought it'd help, but he just... _froze_ and then you called about Boost."

Poe soothed his hands down her wrapped up arms. "Okay. It'll be okay." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Want me to braid your hair for bed?"

She sniffed as she sat up. "Braid?"

He nodded. "Here, turn back around. I promise not to pull too hard."

****

Finn watched Zeroes staring at Boost, no, they'd named her Satine, sleeping curled in front of the Code Six where it was hooked to the closed loop comms they were letting her test it with.

"They pulled a cot clear in here. Just for her."

Finn nodded. "They do that. Poe slept in my medical room for most of the time I was in a coma."

Zeroes turned his head just slightly to look at Finn and Satine at the same time. "They didn't decommission you." He took a ration bar from his jacket pocket and put it on Satine's bunk.

"They don't do that." Finn reached out slowly and laid his hand on Zeroes' shoulder. "You remember how Phasma used to talk before she started being Reconditioned to be an officer?"

He nodded.

"They are a lot more like that. They care about every person in the whole, not _just_ the whole. If we'd trained here they would have praised me for going back for Slip instead of telling me to leave him.

"It's a weakness."

Finn shook his head. "No. It's their strength. None of them have to worry about being left behind. They know someone will come for them. All they have to do is survive until help arrives."

Zeroes let out a shuddery breath. "I miss my armor."

Finn used his hand to pull Zeroes in so they touched at the shoulders. "We'll get you armor."

Zeroes huffed. "Right."

"Hey." Finn bumped him. "I'm a pretty big deal with the Resistance."

Zeroes shook his head. "You were a good Trooper."

Finn made a rude noise. "No, I wasn't. You were a good Trooper. I was faking it."

"Now we're both walking dead."

"Yep." Finn bumped Zeroes' shoulder again. "I'm going to enjoy every moment of it. Until the FIrst Order catches and destroys me, I'm going to make it worth every moment I'm free of them."

Zeroes stilled for a moment before turning and grabbing tightly onto Finn. "I won't let them take you." He hiccuped as he fought down his tears.

Finn hugged Zeroes close. "Let's go to our room. We don't have to share with anyone more than we want. It's just Poe, Rey, and me. The children. And now you. You get the bunk in the room where the littles have claimed the floor all to yourself. No sharing."

"Okay." Zeroes sounded disbelieving, but he followed Finn as they headed out into the corridor.

Finn nodded to the Resistance, both adults and children, that were guarding the hallway to Satine as he lead his only remaining squadmate to their new home.

****

Satine blinked at the lights from the closed loop boards as she fingered the ration bar the Patch Trooper had left her. Korro Zeroes Finnscean would make good patches when Satine was too scrambled to go on.

She drank down one of the water pouches and listened to the corridor breathe as she considered the closed loop. The Keeper of the Tree, Namer of Stormtroopers, Droidsaver, Poe Dameron would ask to connect to Them when the Princess General Leia told him to ask her.

She smiled. She would throw the last switches and wait for the names. Wait, wait, wait. She took a deep breath. It felt good not to have pain. She almost missed pain, but not enough to want it back. She petted the Six she had built just for Finn. She snuggled down against the console where her body didn't press any of the hidden switches. 

Finn Dameron, Named Stormtrooper, The One Who Remained Free, Roll Trooper, would ask for her help to change the Repeating Roll. She shifted the encryption in her head. She needed the signal strength. She needed the Repeating Roll. She needed...

The Other Man appeared near her.

She sneered at him and rolled towards the Code Six. The Other Man stroked his not-fingers along her spine. She sighed. "Repeating Roll."

_Please, help them._

She jerked and hit back at him. "Stupid glowy Man." She blinked at the lights on their boards. They used such slow signal lanes. They didn't even use the proper steps and channels. She sat up. She could make it better.

_Wait, that wasn't what I meant._

She grinned and started quietly pulling the boards apart. She had enough wire and the cot was metal, she could make use of it. Quiet, quiet, make better, signal out.

****


End file.
